Richard Strauss on the pedestal

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This week's figure on the pedestal was the last of the great romantics.

Written by Greg Keane

Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, even they were not originally composed to be performed together, are in effect the last will and testament to Romantic music, even they were composed in 1948, long after Romanticism had become a dead letter.

Strauss's mellow autumnal style at the end of his long life (he was born in 1864) was a total contrast to the idiom of his music composed at the beginning of his career. His early tone poems - Don Juan , Death & Transfiguration - not to mention his operas Salome & Elektra, caused sensations with their radical dissonances. Salome was even banned by the censors in various countries.

Incongruously, Strauss himself was anything but radical in his personal style, resembling a rather complacent bourgeois, something of a philistine but with a very sharp business mind. (He made numerous suites from his opera Der Rosenkavalier to increase royalties; one was even said to be composed for mandolins).

His narcissistic personality inspired him to compose Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), more or less about himself, and the Domestic Symphony which depicts the relatively banal activities in their ménage (like bathing the baby).

Strauss had an uneasy relationship with the Third Reich and unwisely accepted the presidency of one of the Reich's official music organisations. As an essentially apolitical figure, it's fair to say the decision was based on naivety.

In his last years he adopted an almost neo-classical style in works such as the Oboe Concerto.

At his death, he was the world's most famous composer and he received a state funeral attended by the future German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.